You know what they say: you never get a second chance to make a first impression. These days it's most likely that impression will be online. In this piece, we consider the top five mistakes businesses make online that leave a bad taste in customers' mouths.

Localization & Globalization

Smartling, a translation technology and service innovator, has deepened the integration of its Translation Management Platform with the Yext Knowledge Engine through a Smartling app in the Yext App Directory, enabling businesses to translate and localize their online listings seamlessly, from basic business information to deep content like promotions and product information across the web.

From the smallest start-ups to multinational corporations, an increasing number of companies are now using voiceovers to bring credibility, closeness and a human touch to their corporate communication materials. The right human voice is able to reach out and engage culturally diverse audiences in a dialogue. What's more, voiceovers offer countless possibilities for multilingual adaptation of prime content.

During recent discussions with global product and content leaders, and language service suppliers, I noticed that a recurring topic still made relationships between these suppliers and their clients less productive than expected. They can't seem to agree on the answers to a couple of questions. What are language services and how do these services contribute to global business in general and digital experiences in particular?

Sharing a car, an apartment, or content is now the norm. Whether for free or paid, sharing goods and services has become more than just another trend. The same is true for the globalization of digital content. The business processes underlying content globalization are subject to efforts to increase cost- and time-effectiveness, and deliver faster results. However, this poses challenges that must be framed to avoid turning distributed engagement and empowerment into fragmentation and dilution.

From the first time a customer or prospect engages with any external-facing facet of a business, that CX is being tested. And while many organizations are laser-focused on making a sale to drive revenue, delivering a positive experience must go far beyond the initial transaction. Read any marketing publication today and you will find information on how to address the customer's needs before an actual purchase is made, but few touch on one of the most important parts of the overall customer journey: the post-purchase customer experience.

Diversity is a key value in digital globalization. Regardless of industry--or globalization maturity stage--diversity cannot live and thrive without holistic inclusion (a major enabler of content globalization). When it comes to the mind of global leaders and performers, holistic inclusion fuels a number of aspects of global content operations ranging from processes to standards and from planning to execution. As a matter of fact, inclusion underlies success all along the way--provided it is embraced from the outset of global expansion and growth.

Cloudwords, a software provider for global content localization, announced new platform functionality to simplify the process of localizing Adobe InDesign documents. The new features allow Cloudwords users to review and edit translated text in InDesign page layouts within Cloudwords OneReview, the platform's in-context review capability, without the need to purchase or learn how to use InDesign software.

SDL announced that its Neural Machine Translation (NMT) technology is now part of SDL Enterprise Translation Server 7.4, a secure Machine Translation (MT) platform for regulated industries. Deployed on premise or in a private cloud environment, SDL ETS is designed for companies facing tight regulations, and offers total control of MT-related data

An announcement made the headlines just a few days ago that could help recalibrate and accelerate globalization in a sustainable way. China announced it was going to invest $124 billion in order to strengthen the new Silk Road (also know as One Belt, One Road) aiming to boost global development, trade, and cooperation.

Cloudwords, a software provider for global content localization, announced the availability of Cloudwords for Drupal 8, which it says is a faster, easier solution for enterprise organizations to create, deliver, and manage multilingual Drupal websites. Cloudwords' integration for Drupal 8 delivers a fully automated workflow to accelerate the process of translating Drupal websites and digital content for global markets.

Lingotek, the translation network, announced that it has become a Salesforce AppExchange Partner. Salesforce is the world's leading customer relationship management (CRM) software company that helps companies track and monitor sales and marketing activities.

When a company is looking to expand globally, the challenges of localizing content are magnified. Many organizations underestimate the difficulty and the importance of localizing campaigns for new markets. To avoid this, marketers should ensure that each step of the localization process is picked through with a fine-tooth comb so that nothing is missed.

On a typical day, Solomon meets with clients, agency partners, content platform providers, and internal Lingotek departments to gather use cases, weigh priorities, and create requirements for development. "I find ways to connect Lingotek's advanced translation technology and network of professional translators to the people creating content across the globe," he says.

At first glance, content globalization may be seen as a cost rather than in investment. This short-term and misleading view should be challenged and used as inspiration to execute goals on time and on budget. One way to turn digital globalization from a cost center into a profit driver in the mind of stakeholders—and in everyday content operations—is to deliver highly engaging and demand generating content.

Lionbridge Technologies, Inc., a translation and digital communications company and a Gold Level member of Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), announced that it has released version 1.5 of its Oracle Marketing Cloud application, available on the Oracle Cloud Marketplace.

Cloudwords, a software provider for global content localization, announced it has partnered with Lilt, an AI-infused translation platform, to deliver an end-to-end localization solution that incorporates the best of both Cloudwords' and Lilt's technology solutions. Cloudwords says its software speeds global marketing workflows, and Lilt's interactive Machine Translation (MT) and CAT software boosts translator productivity.

Lingotek, a translation network, announced that the Lingotek - Inside AEM 6.2 connector is Adobe-certified, bringing its fully networked, automated translation solution to Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) users. AEM is a comprehensive content management platform for building websites, mobile apps, and forms to make managing marketing content and assets easier for large enterprises.

Engaging with customers in their language is essential to delivering great experiences. Language is more than just using the right words. It also involves crafting all content that touches the customer in such a way that it demonstrates empathy and understanding.

Digital globalization may sound like a fairly obvious process to content leaders and owners who may therefore define it in a too narrow fashion, i.e. pushing content out to the world. Like for other business processes they should mind the gap between quick assumptions and fast execution. Digital globalization entails the deployment of content across multiple markets and a multitude of steps. So it must be managed holistically and precisely to be truly efficient.

At the beginning and end of each year, we see the emergence of thoughts about what was achieved and how to excel going forward. While better, faster, or cheaper are recurring considerations, the near future may be defined by "connecting for growth." Leaders and players in the global marketplace should keep delivering on that mantra. New and ambitious global challengers should adopt it sooner rather than later. Connections are the name of the game. Here are a few words of advice for trendsetters.

Lingotek, The Translation Network, announced the release of a new Multilingual Business Intelligence application (app) available on Lingotek's award-winning translation management system (TMS). Localization has rapidly become increasingly strategic to senior executive management in digitally advanced organizations to increase both customer experience and expand top line revenue growth.

In today's evolving digital era, marketers' quest toward stellar, customer experience-driven content is never ending. As much as organizations would love to discover the secret to global content marketing before their competitors do, this is easier said than done.